A historical sketch of Johnson county, Indiana, Part 8

Author: Banta, D. D. (David Demaree), 1833-1896
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, J.H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 186


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A board, constituted of the Justices of the county elected from time to time, continued to transact the public business of the county up to 1837, when a final return was made by the Legisla- ture to a Board of three Commissioners, which system is still in vogue. The persons who served on this last Board of Justices, in addition to those whose names have already been given, were as follows : Abraham Low, Jacob Peggs, Thos. Robertson, William Brunnemer, Henry B. Roland, Richard Foster, Robert Farns- worth, Cornelius McDermet, Gideon Drake, John Lowe, John C. Goodman, Isaac Vannice, Charles G. Dungan, Cornelius Lyster and Austin Jacobs.


In May, 1837, the county was divided into three Commission- ers' districts, as follows : Blue River, Nineveh and Hensley, to compose the First District ; Union and Franklin, the Second Dis- trict, and White River and Pleasant, the Third District, and no change has since been made, except to add Clark Township to the Third when it was organized.


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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


CHAPTER XII.


INCIDENTS.


The history of the county, following the settlement of the country up to the present, would fill a volume, if written in detail. But the time has not come when one might venture upon writing such a work, much less publish it. Many of those who took an active part in the stirring times succeeding the colonization of the county are yet living, and just criticism would be out of the ques- tion. But while we may not venture upon any connected history of the times indicated, it may not be amiss to group in this con- nection some facts and events belonging to the county, which may seem to call for recognition.


The conservative character of the people of Johnson County has ever been a subject of remark. Whatever the cause may be, the absence of the rash and sensational element that sometimes mars the general character of a community, is a conspicuous feature here. But if our people are a quiet and conservative people, they are at the same time an industrious and thrifty people. With great industry, and with equal quietness, they set to work in the begin- ning to convert the woodland into arable. We have followed them somewhat in their severe task in previous chapters, and now, taking up the broken thread, we may note that while the progress in population and wealth for many years in this county was slow, when tested by the examples coming to us from more favored localities of the present. yet there was progress in everything that goes to the np-building of a people. The conversion of forest, and often of swamp land into productive, was not the work of a few years. A generation of strong men perished in the attempt, and left the work unfinished. Their sons and successors took up the task where they left off, and the memories of men now living require no reminder to call to mind the magnitude of that unfin- ished work.


By the close of 1836, the great body of the lands, taking the county over, had been taken up, and by that time it may be set down that the county, as a whole, was fairly settled. In 1830, as we have seen, the census report showed a population of 4,019, and from that time on, for the next ten years, the increase in popula- tion was, all things considered, extraordinary. It was in the lat- ter half of this decade that a financial distress prevailed through- out the United States of such unparalleled severity as to result in


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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


a change of administration of the General Government. That distress was no less here in Johnson County than elsewhere. And in addition to this, it must be borne in mind that this was the decade in which sickness throughout Johnson County was more keenly felt than during any decade before or since. This was the transition period of the county from woodland to cleared, and during the "sickly season " of the year, there was mourning in every neighborhood.


And yet the county grew in population, wealth and moral power. In 1835, it had increased, judging from the vote of that year, to at least 6,500. By 1840, it had increased, as shown by the census report, to 9,352, an increase of over 100 per cent in ten years. And while we may lament the absence of data to enable exactness of speech concerning the increase of wealth, still it is safe to say that increase was much greater than the increase in population. The toilers had not ceased. Their numbers had not diminished, and the tillable acres had sextupled. It is during these years that we find that the young men of the county, who had grown up beside the hardships of the country, were going out and making entries of land in their own names, with money earned with the grubbing-hoe, the ax and the maul.


From 1840 to 1850, population and wealth continued on the increase. but not at so great a rate as during the former period. Johnson County was no longer a " new country," inviting home- hunters to come and buy land at Government prices, and so we need not expect so large a showing in the census reports. For 1850, the total number of polls was 12,101, a healthy growth, when we remember all the surroundings.


During the year ending June, 1850, there were in the county 379 births, 176 marriages, and 123 deaths.


The improved lands at this time amount to 71,230 acres, and the cash value of the same is estimated at $1,928,575, while the value of the farming implements and machinery is put at $97,233.


Value of home manufactures for one year. $27,824


Number of horses in the county.


4,429


Number of asses and mules.


176


Number of milk cows ..


3,587


Number of work oxen.


365


Number of other cattle.


4,896


Number of sheep.


36,055


Value of live stock. .


$322,704


Value of slaughtered animals.


$77,080


Bushels of wheat raised this year. 99,038


Bushels of corn raised this year. 993,375


Bushels of oats raised this year. 34,262


Pounds of tobacco raised this year. 11,538


41,602


Pounds of wool clipped this year.


19,335


Number of swine in the county.


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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


Evidently men were at work. Tedious as census tables may be, here is the story of industry and success told by these figures, better, briefer than it can be told in any other mode.


But the men of Johnson County were not working with the muck-rake to the exclusion of better things This table says there are 104 public schools in Johnson County at this time, and that 2,725 pupils were in attendance. It also tells us that there are 20 Baptist Churches, 13 Christian, 2 Lutheran, 28 Methodist, 2 Moravian and 18 Presbyterian-83 in all, a number so large as to be suggestive of the fact that census-takers sometimes make mistakes ; and we remember this the more when, ten years after, we count up and find but fifty-seven churches, distributed as fol- fows : Baptists, 12; Christian, 15 ; Methodist, 17 ; Presbyterian, 10 ; Roman Catholic, 2, and United Brethren, 1.


The census for this year (1860) shows a population of 14,835, an increase of 2,734 in ten years. Immigration had ceased in the main, while quite an active emigration had set in toward the region west of the Mississippi.


But if between 1850 and 1860 there was slow growth, the next decade made up for it. Notwithstanding the consumption of human life by the war, the increase was remarkable, the population in 1870 being no less than 18,366. The causes for this increase were manifold. The habit of emigrating to new States had ceased, and the South had sent its refugees here to swell our number. The work of clearing off the land was about over. The due pro- portion between woodland and farm land required by good hus- bandry was being approximated, and while fallen timber no longer choked the drains producing lagoons and morasses, a new and improved system of underdrainage was introduced, was univer- sally practiced by the owners of hitherto wet lands, and the entire county taken through a change, whereby its productive power was so largely increased that farm labor is in demand to a degree un- known before.


Highways had been cut out in numbers sufficient for the accom- modation of the people, and as the country was cleared out and efforts made at drainage, the highways were greatly improved beyond their early condition. But there were, and still are, seasons when the dirt roads in some localities are barely pass- able.


In the month of January, 1847, occurred a flood which from its severity came to be known here and elsewhere throughout the State as the " great freshet." The Franklin Examiner of the date of January 5, of that year, contains the following brief ac- count of the flood and its consequences :


1


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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


"On Friday last occurred here the highest and most destruc- tive freshet witnessed since the settlement of the country. On Thursday evening about dark, an unusually heavy rain came up, which continued with more or less abatement throughout the night, until noon on Friday, by which time the low grounds in every direction were under water, and almost every rill and drain was swelled to an impassable torrent, carrying away fences, bridges and everything movable."


All the bridges over Young's Creek, the Hurricane, Blue River, Sugar Creek, the North and South Forks of Stotts' Creek, were destroyed or badly injured. Great damage was done to the mills and to the farms. Travel for many days was suspended, and the mail carriers failed to make their rounds. This flood was general throughout the Ohio Valley, and occasioned, along every river and smaller water-course, unparalleled destruction of prop- erty and, in some places, loss of life.


Frequent rains continued throughout the months of January, February and March, and, as a consequence, the roads were worse than ever before.


" An amusing chapter," writes John R. Kerr, the editor of the Examiner, of the date of March 2, " might just at this time be made up of the various shifts and expedients of travelers to get on their way, or their expressions of disappointment and impa- tience at finding themselves fairly mud-bound and brought to a standstill, just when to them it appears their business requires more haste. Some stow their baggage and themselves in the best manner they can, in quarters most convenient to the swamped mud- cart. Others, mounting jaded stage-horses, bare-back, and others, with their baggage shouldered, have gone 'on their way rejoicing' on foot. Nearly all of our citizens, in some way or other, as well as travelers, are subject to much inconvenience and vexation on account of the state of the roads. * * Money seems to have lost its charms with teamsters, and entreaties and persuasions are of no avail. The merchant's goods of Franklin are piled up in the depot at Edinburg, while the grain and other heavy arti- cles, which they have taken in for export, must remain on hand for some time, and may occasion them much loss."


Out of all of this mud came an earnest effort to make better roads. On the 16th of March a "road meeting" was held at the court house in Franklin, at which Judge Fabius M. Finch, Gilderoy Hicks, Esq., Jesse Williams and Robert Hamilton seem to have actively participated, and a movement was then set on foot which culminated in 1849 in the construction of the Franklin and Mooresville plank road. About the same time, the Edinburg and


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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


Western Plank Road Company was organized, and a plank road was made from Edinburg to Williamsburg. But the plank road system was a failure, and it was not until about 1865, that the value of the gravel beds scattered throughout the north and east halves of the county, for road purposes, came to be known. Since then the main thoroughfares have been graded and laid with gravel, and there is at this time not less than 150 miles of gravel road in the county.


In 1836, the people of Indiana became infatuated with the idea of carrying on a great system of internal improvements, and ex- tensive canals were dug, and water-powers improved, and a rail- road from Madison to Indianapolis was projected. The system of internal improvements thus inaugurated, brought disaster to the people of the State, and the railroad track to Johnson Co. Work was begun on the Madison & Indianapolis Railroad a generation ago, but the iron was not laid to Edinburg until 1845. They built railroads slowly in those days. It was two years after Edin- burg was reached before cars ran into Franklin. This event took place some time between the 17th and the 24th days of August, 1847, and Indianapolis was reached some time after.


In the spring of 1846, the project of building a lateral branch railroad from Franklin to Martinsville was actively discussed, but two or three years were consumed before anything definite was accomplished, and the Martinsville & Franklin Railroad was not completed until some time in 1853. In the fall of 1857, the old "flat bar-iron " and the wooden rails gave out, and trains ceased to run. In the spring of 1866, however, the franchises of the old company passed into a new one, and the line was built through to Fairland, in Shelby County, thus making a connection with the Indianapolis, Cincinnati & La Fayette Company.


In 1848, the lateral branch railroad connecting Edinburg and Shelbyville was built, but this proving to be an unprofitable in- vestment, it was abandoned, and during the early stages of the war the iron was removed from the track.


Between the hours of 12 and 1 o'clock, A. M., of May 18, 1849, a fire broke out in Franklin, which, besides doing much damage to private property, destroyed the court house. Most of . the records and papers were saved. but time has shown that some of the latter were lost.


Previously to this, the Commissioners had been considering the propriety of building offices for the accommodation of the county officers, and now they took up the work of building a new court house, and on the 4th day of July of that year a contract to build was let to Edwin May, of Indianapolis, for the price of $10,084.


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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


John Elder, of the same place, was allowed $50 for the plans and specifications, which, however, cannot now be found.


This building served the purpose, although many changes from time to time were made in and about the court-room up to 1874, when, on the evening of the 12th day of December, fire broke out in or about the stairway leading to the cupola, and the Johnson County Court House was again destroyed. One or two records were burned, and in removing the papers from the Clerk's office, some were lost, and all orderly arrangement was destroyed. It now became necessary to make some provision for the accommo- dation of public officers and courts, and a temporary frame struct- ure was erected on the south side of the square suitable for the purpose. In 1879, however, the grand jury of the county re- ported this to be unsuitable for the preservation of the records, and the Commissioners of the county thereupon set about the work of building a new court house. Plans and specifications, prepared by George W. Bunting, architect, were adopted, and in September of that year, the contract for building the house was let to Farman & Pierce for $79,100.


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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


CHAPTER XIII.


THE EARLY BAR OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


Johnson County, at the time of its organization, was attached to the Fifth Judicial Circuit, and provision was made for two terms of court each year. The Circuit Court was then, as now, the most important court to the people in the State. All causes of any magnitude whatever, were taken there for trial.


Three Judges were provided for by constitutional enactment, a President Judge and two Associate Judges. This last feature in the constitution of the court testifies to the feeling of wide- spread jealousy in the minds of the people, not only of profes- sional men, but of their own rights. While the law did not require that a lawyer should be elevated to the chief place on the bench, yet it was a rare thing to find any other than a lawyer occupying that place. We do not call to mind at this time any instance in Indiana of a layman being elected by legislature or the people to the office of President Judge of the Circuit Court. The law of " natural selection " controlled in this matter.


And yet, while professional learning was in demand, the peo- ple demanded that representatives from their own ranks should have a seat upon the bench, and that these representatives should have the power to override the decisions of the chief Judge. Two Associate Judges were accordingly provided for, and, from the organization of the State up to the adoption of our present con- stitution in 1850, in every county in the State, two " Associate Judges " were chosen, whose duty it was to conduct the court in the absence of the President Judge, and to aid him in the dis- charge of his duties when he was present. In the event they deemed him to be mistaken in his opinions as to questions of law or fact, or that he was acting from any wrong or improper motive, they could modify or overrule his judgments, and enforce their own as the judgment of the court.


At the time Johnson County became a part of the Fifth Ju- dicial Circuit, William Watson Wick was the President Judge, and, as Judge Wick was so long identified with the people of this county, not only as a jurist but as a politician, he deserves more than the mere mention of his name.


Judge Wick sprang from a Dutch, English and Scotch an- cestry. His father, William Watson Wick, represented the first two nationalities mentioned, and was a sober, serious, pious man,


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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


while his mother was pure Scotch, and, while equally pious, was vivacious and witty. They were married in 1790 or 1791, and the young husband was a house-carpenter by trade, but soon after he laid aside his hammer and handsaw, and fitted himself for the ministry in the Presbyterian Church. In due time he was li- censed to preach, and soon after moved to Youngstown, Ohio, where he performed missionary labor. There he remained until his death, which occurred about 1812.


William Watson, the second child of the foregoing, was born on the 22d day of February, 1794, in Western Pennsylvania. His early years were spent on his father's farm, but showing a greater love for books than did his brothers, he was sent to col- lege, and, although he did not graduate, he nevertheless acquired a good academic education.


At his father's death, he left college and set out in the world in quest of his own fortune. The study of medicine first engaged his attention, but, after some time spent at this, he entered the law office of the late Hon. Thomas Corwin, in Lebanon, Ohio, and studied law. How long he remained in Corwin's office is not remembered, but we may surmise that he was there some time, for, in after years, he proved to the world that he was a well-read lawyer, and especially well grounded in the principles of equity jurisprudence.


Some time in 1820 he came to Connersville, in Fayette County, but soon after moved to Centerville. Shortly after he came to the State he was elected Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit, and, in February, 1822, moved to Indianapolis. A short time before that he was married to Miss Alice Finch, a daughter of Judge J. Finch.


Judge Wick, in his early life, was full six feet tall, well formed, athletic ; had dark hair, a full eye, a mouth full of sound teeth ; had a round head, a broad forehead, shaggy eye-brows, and, taken all in all, was a fine specimen of manly beauty. He was a good lawyer and made an excellent Judge. It is remembered that he was not garrulous when on the bench, heard counsel patiently, decided all questions promptly, and seldom gave any reasons for his decisions. He wrote all bills of exceptions, and did it with fairness to all.


He was a very tender-hearted man, and always gave the ac- cused the benefit of the doubt. This brought unfriendly criti- cism sometimes, but it did not change his course.


He was cool and deliberate while on the bench ; he seldom or never showed temper. He was kind to young lawyers, was respectful to the old, and never suffered any one to go beyond the bounds of professional courtesy in their treatment of himself.


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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


Of his Associate Judges in Johnson County, Daniel Boaz and Israel Watts, it may be said as of all their successors, they were honest, fair-minded men, who made no pretensions to any par- ticular knowledge of the law.


Judge Wick resigned the office of Judge at the close of 1824, to take the office of Secretary of State, when Bethuel F. Morris was appointed by Gov. Hendricks, and he served for about ten years. Judge Morris was a slow man-slow in thought and slow in speech. He was not considered by the bar as a well- read lawyer, but he was a conscientious and painstaking worker. He paid great attention to the arguments of counsel, and usually gave satisfactory judgments. He seldom or never gave a reason for his judgments, but frequently said, " It is a good deal easier to give a good judgment than a good reason for it." A few months before his commission expired, he resigned and took an office in the State Bank. He has long been dead.


In 1834, Wick was re-elected, and served to 1840, when his term expiring, James Morrison was chosen. Judge Morrison was a good lawyer and an able Judge. His mind was clear ; he saw a point stripped of all its surroundings, and seldom made a mistake in his decisions. He was born in Scotland in 1796, and died in 1869.


After two years' service, Judge Morrison resigned, and Gov. Bigger then appointed Fabius M. Finch, of the Johnson bar, to the office, who held it one year, when he gave place to William J. Peaslee, who served a term of seven years. Judge Peaslec was an Eastern man, and not much seems to be remembered of him.


Wick succeeded Peaslee in 1850, and, in 1857, Stephen Major succeeded Wick, but he resigned in little less than two years, when Wick was re-appointed by Gov. Willard, and served up to the fall of 1859, making a total of about fifteen years he served in all, when Judge Finch was elected, and held the office for a term of six years. On the expiration of his term, John Coburn was elected, but he resigned at the end of a year, when Cyrus C. Hines was elected, and served as Judge up to the re-districting of the State in 1868-69, when Johnson County became a part of the Sixteenth Judicial Circuit, which was composed of the counties of Shelby, Bartholomew, Brown and Johnson. When that was donc, Samuel P. Oyler was appointed by Gov. Baker, and served up to 1870, when David D. Banta was elected, and held it up to 1876, when the present incumbent, Kendall M. Hord was elected.


About 1830, a County Court was established having a purely probate jurisdiction, and this was maintained up to the adoption


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HISTORICAL SKETCH OF JOHNSON COUNTY.


of the constitution of 1850. The Judges of this court were all laymen, and their names and order of service were as follows : John Smiley, Bartholomew Applegate and Peter Voris.


With the adoption of the Code of 1852, the Common Pleas Court was inaugurated, and this was maintained up to 1871-72, when it was abolished, and all the legal business centered in the Circuit Court as at the beginning. In 1871-72, on the abolition of the Common Pleas Court, the circuit was still further reduced, and since then has consisted of Johnson and Shelby Counties. Franklin Hardin was the first Common Pleas Judge, and he served up to 1860, when his last term having expired, and the Common Pleas district being enlarged so as to include Monroe, Morgan, Brown, Shelby and Johnson Counties, George A. Buskirk, of Monroe, was elected Judge, and served as such a term of four years, when Oliver J. Glessner, of Morgan, was chosen. On the expiration of his term, Thomas W. Woollen, of Johnson, was elected, and in 1870, he resigned, when Richard L. Coffey, of Brown, was chosen, and he held the office until the court was abolished.


Johnson County has always been noted for the absence of the litigious element among its people. This is due in some extent to their conservative character, but to the bar of the county, we think, more is due. The members of any bar may, if they see fit, encourage litigation with such a degree of earnest- ness as to keep the soberest community in an uproar ; or they may, on the other hand, advise conciliation and compromise with so much zeal as to repress the greater part of all litigation that is of a trivial and merely harassing nature. From whatever cause, it is, and always has been, a noticeable fact that litigation in Johnson County is less resorted to in the settlement of diffi- culties than in any of the neighboring counties of equal popula- tion and wealth.


In the beginning, the courts had but little to do. For thirty years after the county was organized it was seldom that a term of Circuit Court occupied more than a week. But business was more rapidly dispatched then than now. The old lawyers were not so tedious in the examination of witnesses as the modern, and it was a rare thing indeed for the evidence of witnesses to be taken down. There were but few law-books in comparison to the number now, and lawyers argued questions from principle rather than authority, and this gave greater haste. There are law libraries in Franklin to-day containing a thousand volumes, while Gilderoy Hicks, a leading member of the bar in his day, never owned over twelve or fifteen law-books. One of the most important causes tried in the county, under the old judicial sys-




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